Dylan Matthews: The Republican tax bill is far, far, far worse than it had to be.

Cardin would exempt the first $100,000 of income for couples from income tax ($50,000 for singles, $75,000 for single parents), meaning that the vast majority of people would no longer pay income taxes. He’d consolidate rates to three — 15, 25, and 28 percent — and cut the corporate tax to 17 percent. That’s a lower top individual rate, and a lower corporate rate, than the Senate is proposing. To pay for it, he’d introduce a value-added tax, the kind of consumption tax used in most other rich countries, and add a rebate so that poor people don’t see their taxes go up.